Implantable CRM devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators are used to treat cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure, and other cardiac disorders by delivering electrical energy to the heart. Advances in biomedical technology have provided implantable CRM devices with increasingly sophisticated features and operational modes treating more types of disorders while being more adaptive to a patient's changing physiological conditions and individual lifestyle. As a consequence, programming an implantable CRM device is an increasingly complicated task. To maximize the extent to which the patient can potentially benefit from the implantable CRM device, the programming needs to be substantially patient-specific.
To operate after implantation into a patient, an implantable CRM device is programmed by a physician or other caregiver using an external programming device. The programming device allows the physician or other caregiver to program the implantable CRM device by entering or selecting values for programmable parameters. Such programmable parameters include, but are not limited to, therapy modes and quantitative parameters required for operating in each therapy mode, special features and quantitative parameters required for utilizing each special feature, and various therapy activation or feature activation criteria. These parameters are determined by the physician or other caregiver for each patient based on the patient's indications for use of the implantable CRM device as well as other patient-specific data obtained during various diagnoses and tests. The increasing number of programmable parameters that accompany the increasingly sophisticated features and operational modes makes the parameter determination increasingly difficult. Additionally, implantable CRM devices of different types, as well as some devices of the same type, require different programmable parameters and/or different programming procedures. Physicians and/or other caregivers may have to receive extensive training on how to program each specific type of implantable CRM devices for an individual patient and how to optimally utilize many advanced features for the benefit of that patient. Introductions of new device features, while providing the users with additional power in treating cardiac disorders, tend to make the programming of implantable CRM devices more difficult and intimidating. One undesirable consequence is underutilization of available device features and capabilities. If properly utilized, such underutilized device features and capabilities will potentially provide substantial additional benefits to many patients who have already benefited from implantable CRM devices.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for facilitating the process of optimally programming an implantable CRM device for each individual patient.